Are You Ready for a Home Server? Microsoft Is

If home servers were easy to install and maintain, we wouldn't need IT folks. But every year at the start of the holidays, we're promised the home server solution we've been waiting for. This year, Microsoft is picking up the gauntlet by working with various hardware partners to extend the Windows Vista experience to include the home server—a single repository for sharing, communicating, protecting, and storing data.

The partners in Microsoft Home Server include Gateway, Iomega, and HP. The companies aim to produce a home server for anyone who never thought they'd be able to manage a server. The idea is to mask the complexities of managing a server while at the same time keep the users of the system protected, connected, and organized. Tall order.

First proof of concept out of the gate is HP MediaSmart Server (powered by Microsoft server software). To the naked eye, HP's machine and others like it act as monitor-less, keyboard-less PCs with lots of storage room. All you need to do is plug it into your router and the wall, and you're up and running.

The server does a number of things:

• It performs automatic backup of all of your media throughout the home onto one PC.
• It allows remote access—the ability to dial into your PCs from off the premises, for example.
• It'll store your live music, photos, and videos.
• It bundles the functionality of Windows Live—an online repository of all your data.
• It monitors the security of your entire system.
• It runs quietly and supports up to 10 PCs.

The MediaSmart Server is offered in a 500GB version for $599 (U.S.) and a 1TB model for $749 (U.S.). That is a lot of storage.

According to Microsoft, the market for home servers is big; there are more than 60 million people worldwide that have broadband access and two or more PCs at home. They have important data stored on those PCs, including digital memories (photos and videos), work and personal documents, financial data, and more.

I'm a bit skeptical that the world at large is ready to manage their PCs and digital life through a single server, though we get closer every year. Microsoft has put some real effort into this and claims to have made it easy enough for any family to manage their own. I suspect it will move us a step closer, but I can't see a country full of Chief IT Managers at home quite yet.